March 30th

I visited The Hermitage, the house and estate of Andrew Jackson, the only president our current president thinks accomplished anything useful while in office. I can’t believe we haven’t yet received an executive order announcing that a black woman (Harriet Tubman) can’t possibly take the place on the 20 dollar bill of his hero.

OK, enough politics! Andrew and his wife Rachel (who sadly died after his election but before his inauguration) lived in a two story log cabin before building the handsome neoclassical mansion I toured today. It was a large cotton plantation. Jackson is considered to have treated his enslaved people fairly and kept families together, but did not free them from slavery either.

For the rest of my day in Nashville, I had a tour guide I didn’t anticipate when I was planning my trip. Ariel is the daughter of my special cousin Alison, who died much too young of cancer a few years ago. Ariel graduated from Florida State last year and is working at music festivals to establish herself in the hospitality business.

We took a tour of the Ryman Auditorium, a big old red building that started as a religious tabernacle and became the home of the Grand Old Opry and all kinds of concerts and events. Then we rambled around the waterfront and nearly got crushed by the multitudes of bachelorette parties on drinking bicycles, live bands, Predator hockey fans and general revelers on Broadway, a pedestrian street that for some reason allows cars. We topped it off with a barbecue dinner.